Upon taking possession of the Institution your Committee 

 found that owing probably to the want of funds under 

 which the Association had for some years been labouring 

 the whole of the premises were very much in want of 

 cleansing and repairs and that the library catalogues had not 

 been properly kept up and therefore your Committee had to 

 undertake a close comparison of the books with the catalogues 

 such as they were in order to ascertain what was to be 

 transferred to the Corporation. This entailed much labour, 

 considerable outlay, and a large expenditure of time. The 

 Committee also thought it of importance that the repairs 

 and alterations to the building necessary to make it suitable 

 for a free institution and for the safe custody of the 

 collections, should be at once systematically undertaken — 

 these matters could have been much more speedily carried out 

 had your Committee thought it well to exclude the public for 

 a few weeks at the commencement, but it appeared to them 

 highly desirable that the ratepayers should have full advantage 

 of the Institution from the earliest possible day and therefore 

 they kept it open free of charge from the day they so took 

 possession for the hours during which the public had been 

 previously admitted on payment. It however subsequently 

 became necessary to close both the Museum and Library 

 departments for general renovation and your Committee 

 made arrangements by which, upon their reopening, the 

 whole of the Institution should be open every week day 

 from 9.30 a.m. to 9 p.m., except that the Museum should 

 be closed on Fridays for cleansing and examination of the 

 cases which cannot be done daily. 



Your Committee found that in order to open in the 

 evening it would be necessary to provide for much additional 

 lighting and they therefore had electric lighting introduced 

 throughout — the result being highly satisfactory. 



